Documentary tells story of First Nation's veterans

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A Debt of Honor is a documentary series that has had a big effect on everyone who has seen it.

Problem is, maybe not enough people have seen the show, said its host, Nelson Bird.

The documentary follows nine First Nations men from the reserves in Saskatchewan to the Second World War battlefields of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The documentary also tells how the federal government continues to deny First Nations veterans the same benefits that were given to non-Aboriginal Canadian soldiers.

The documentaries, first aired in November 2000 on CTV stations in Saskatchewan, recently won two major television journalistic awards -the 2000 Gordon Sinclair Award for special event coverage from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Canada, and the best documentary award from the Native American Journalists Association.

The documentary, done by Bird, producer Norm Shuttleworth and cameraman Gord Barnett, has had a deep impact on everyone who has watched it.

"I remember telling this story to people in the Netherlands - the same people who were liberated by Canadian troops, some of whom were Aboriginal. People in Holland were appalled at the way those veterans were treated."

There's one group of people Bird wishes would watch the documentary. He'd like to see their reaction.

"I sent a copy of the show to the minister of Veterans Affairs, with a note saying why I worked on this documentary," said Bird, a member of Peepeekisis First Nation. "I never got a reply. I don't know whether they've seen it or not.

"It's not a well-known story- at least in non-Aboriginal culture-of the impact the war had on First Nations men who served," said Bird. "It's an important story to be told."

And it's a story he knows well. Bird's father, grandfather, and uncle served in the armed forces during the Second World War.

While many First Nations people took up arms to defend Queen and country as well as their reserves, First Nations war veterans - including an estimated 900 from Saskatchewan - were denied many of the benefits the federal government provided for non-Aboriginal war veterans once they ended their service.

"Under the terms of the treaties, they didn't have to go. They were exempted from conscription into military service. Even so, they went."

The recruits from the reserves had little to lose by joining the armed forces.

"At the time the war broke out in 1939, Saskatchewan was still in the grip of the Great Depression. There was little opportunity for work, especially for those on the reserves."

When the men joined the armed forces, it was the first time in their lives they were looked on as equals with non-Aboriginal people.

All that mattered to the army was whether or not they could do the job - and the First Nations men, the warriors of the 20th century, proved that beyond a doubt, Bird said.

"During their time in the army, they were free -free as any soldier. That's not as free as the life of a non-Aboriginal civilian, but it was much more free than they were used to on reserves. They got their own pay and didn't have to answer to an Indian agent, and they made their own decisions what they wanted to do during their own free time."

But while the armed forces didn't differentiate between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal troops, civil servants in Ottawa did. In 1942 the Mackenzie King government passed legislation transferring the responsibility for providing services for returning First Nations veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Department of Indian Affairs.

"That's why, when they returned to Canada after the war, First Nations veterans were immediately returned to their reserves,"Bird said. "Back there, they had no vote, no ability to leave the reserve without a pass, and no opportunity to do the things in life that non-Aboriginal people could take for granted."

When the federal government, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, eased restrictions for those on the reserves -taking away some of the Indian agent's powers, allowing them to enter and leave the reserve at their pleasure-Aboriginal veterans' compensation was one of the issues left out.

Under the Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association (SFNVA), hundreds of Aboriginal war veterans have tried to negotiate a settlement with the federal government over what was denied to them.

In 1998 the SFNVA launched court action against the federal government over those lost benefits. At that time, there were 120 First Nations war veterans alive in the province. Today there are about 30.

"In the last six months, about 30 such veterans of the Second World War and Korea have died," says Bird. "In a lot of cases it won't be the men who get the compensation, it will be the families.

Meanwhile, the AFN and FSIN continue to try to negotiate a deal with the federal government for Aboriginal war veterans.

"It's a sad situation," said Bird. "Every time I talk with them, they say that one or two meetings more, and they will have an agreement. And the next meeting, and the next...."